Ann Arbor OKs 28-bed student apartment building on Hill Street

ANN ARBOR, MI – Plans are now approved to demolish a house on Hill Street to make way for a 28-bed student apartment building.

The Ann Arbor City Council voted 10-0 last week to approve Miller Building LLC’s proposal to tear down the 4,200-square-foot home at 132 Hill St., across from where the same builder already tore down two other century-old houses to make way for a three-story, 24-bed student apartment building at the corner of Hill and Adams.

Lewis Greenspoon Architects and Miller Building

The newly approved plans call for constructing an 11,653-square-foot building with four six-bedroom apartments and one four-bedroom apartment. The new apartments, estimated to cost $1 million to build, are expected to provide housing for University of Michigan students.

Lewis Greenspoon Architects and Miller Building

The building is proposed to be constructed in two phases, as the city will be upgrading the water main under Hill Street in 2019. The developer proposes constructing the first phase of two units while the existing water main is in place and completing the second phase once the water main upgrades are in place.

A city planning staff report describes the current house on the site: “This 2 1⁄2 story gable front house features Queen Anne and craftsman influences like shingled gables and stained glass, and four-over-one windows and decorative bargeboards. City assessor’s records list its construction date as 1922, which is consistent with its architectural features. Before that, there was a different house on the lot at least as early as 1894."

“In 1922 the occupants were Levi D. Bates and his wife Lena. Levi was the director of Bates Orchestra, which traveled around Michigan and Ohio. The Bateses occupied the house until at least 1940," the planning staff report continues.

“Most of the original houses on the north side of Hill between South Main (called Saline and Ann Arbor Planck Road in 1859) and the railroad tracks were built between 1897 and 1930. In the 1960s, several large brick student apartment buildings were built on this block and throughout the surrounding neighborhood.”